Further study on mutagenic furoquinoline alkaloids of dictamni radicis cortex: isolation of skimmianine and high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis.

A mutagenic furoquinoline alkaloid, skimmianine, was isolated from Dictamni Radicis Cortex in addition to dictamnine and γ-fagarine. The clear-cut separation of these mutagenic furoquinoline alkaloids from this drug was accomplished by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a reversed-phase column and the homogeneity of each peak was confirmed by means of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The conditions for the quantitative analysis of these furoquinoline alkaloids by HPLC, and application of this HPLC method to the analysis of the constituents of the commercial Dictamni Radicis Cortex are reported. The relationship between furoquinoline content and mutagenicity is also discussed.